Interested in early ham radio history? If so, you might like to read about it here: http://w2pa.net/HRH/ A tour of amateur radio history, beginning around the turn of the last century, it unfolds blog-style in periodic installments or chapters.

Last year I endeavored to skim the early years of QST which League members can read on ARRL.org. I concluded that things weren't so different in those halcyon days "when all hams were gentlemen."

You find plenty of grousing about hams who don't QSL and those with wide signals, and there were the outspoken Spark Forever warriors in the 20s. And QST wasn't shy about printing the calls of offenders.

Main diff between then and now: Every op seemed to wear a coat and tie.

Main diff between then and now: Every op seemed to wear a coat and tie.

That likely has more to do with the way photographs were treated in those days.

The "snapshot" or casual photo was not all that common, equipment had to be set up in order to take a shot, often involving not only the camera and lighting, but portable darkroom as well in order to process the plate on site.

What with all that going on, people tended to treat the photograph more like the situation where they would sit for a painting - and thus would dress up for the event.

That does not necessarily mean that the same gentlemen would wear suits all the time when operating their amateur gear.

Recently posted: articles about the beginning of the broadcast boom and its affect on ham radio in the early 1920s. Also a three-part one about the transatlantic tests of the early 20s, probably the first DXpedition/contest.

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